iCommons iSummit Artist in Residence update/review (so far)

Sorry for the delay on posting art, etc – internet was down at the hotel for ages. The conference has been amazing thus far. The generosity of spirit, the sharing, the intellectual rigor, the commitment to the arts and knowledge – even when I disagree with some of the things being said, I understand that what’s behind the argument being made is a passion for this movement, the essence of "making things, and making things happen."

I like that. Nice tagline.
iCommons: make things; then make things happen.

As far as my work goes, there’s been a fair amount of production, then re-blogging and re-production already. [odys] elicit’s re-release under a CC / GPL license has been re-blogged by turbulence / networked_performance, and a minor software adjustment has been requested by South African choreographer Jeanette Ginslov, for an upcoming dance piece she wants to use it in, entitled Writing with Stones.

My eat spoken word on CCmixter has been rated as 5 star (!) and already used for this rockin piece by teru, of the same name. Very cool! w00+!  As mentioned below, Andre SC has re-mixed some images I’ve produced at the iSummit as well. The Gilberto’s Beer beat re-mix of video is also online on Revver now – a very cool project, mentioned below – as well as on the free-beer site that inspired the original footage. Some of the festival-goers have promised its usage in the work they are planning to do in upcoming weeks (Justin Hall has already started editing).

I’ve got some fab ideas for how the AIR can grow before the next conference, turning into a longer project, involving many countries, and exploring the two areas that seem to interest artists most (around CC): revenue generation and production modes. The former has obviously always been a problem for artists (pre-dating CC for about as long as human existence), but there are already some amazingly smart people on the job (such as Jenny Toomey and Steven Starr of revver) – if you build it, we will come. The latter has always been part of the CC ethos, and there are more and more re-mix tools available, but I’d like to see working, conceptual artists who are more involved with hands-on collaboration (not just re-mixing) enter into the iCommons fold now – beyond the geeks like me. The ideas I have are geared towards production, workshops and lectures (all led by working artists) that promote and encourage some of the possibilities that CC has to offer which we may not yet be aware of. Art Work.

This morning saw some ‘dead air’ time of no internet access, but the first panel featured the likes of Glenn Otis Brown, Products Counsel, Google. Nhlanhla Mabaso, Manager, Open Source Centre, CSIR, South Africa, Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia and Cory Doctorow, Journalist, author and activist (of boingboing!). Funny, provocative, interesting. Money Quote from Jimmy with regards to the principles Wikipedia was founded on (paraphrase): "in restaurants, we serve steak; so we give out steak knives; this means people might stab each other; so we have to lock up our diners. WE REJECT THIS METHOD OF RESTAURANT DESIGN."

And, most importantly, I (arguably) learned to samba last night….

@ Rio iSummit